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My son is not nearly as skilled a talker as many of the children in his preschool. How do parents help their children develop good speech skills?
– Speechless
Every child has his or her individual rate of development for skills, including speech. There is cause for concern when a child lags significantly behind his peers. It would be wise to discuss your child’s speech with his preschool teacher to see if the teacher believes as you do that his speech is behind that of his classmates.
Help may be at hand for your son through the Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities. It offers speech-language therapy for children ages 3 through 5. To get this help, you must go through the school district office in the area where you live and ask that your child be evaluated. After the evaluation, you will go to an Admission, Review and Dismissal meeting to determine if your child is eligible for this therapy. If he is, services will be provided at a local public school campus or possibly at a child development center, Head Start, or a private preschool. If he is not eligible for services to improve his speech, you may wish to have him work with a private speech-language pathologist.
Besides having a professional work with your child, there are things that you can do to improve his communication skills:
- When your child speaks, respond to him so he knows that you are listening to what he says.
- Make it a practice to read to your child every day.
- If he is frequently asking you to speak louder or you have to repeat what you say a lot, he may need his hearing tested. Avoid asking your child to slow down or repeat what he has said.
- Get help for your child now so he has good speech-language skills before entering kindergarten.
Parents should send questions and comments todearteacher@dearteacher. com or to the Dear Teacher website. Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2019. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.